The four novellas collected here, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <I>The Age of Innocence,</I> brilliantly capture New York of the 1840s, '50s, '60s, and '70s. Originally published in 1924, this outstanding quartet includes <I>False Dawn,</I> about a rocky father/son relationship; <I>The Old Maid,</I> the best known of the four, in which a young woman's hidden illegitimate child is adoted by her best friend, with devastating results; <I>The Spark,</I> involving a young man and his moral rehabilitation -- "sparked" by a chance encounter with Walt Whitman; and <I>New Year's Day,</I> an O. Henryesque tale of a married woman suspected of adultery. Each reveals the codes and customs that ruled society of the time, drawn with the perspicacious eye and style that is uniquely Edith Wharton's. <P> Pocket Books' enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This valume reprints the orginal <I>New York Times Book Review</I> feature on <I>Old New York,</I> a piece that helps fix the stories in the contemporary critical landscape. Also included are critical perspectives, suggestions for further reading, and a visual essay composed of authentic period illustrations and photographs.